Pre-Approved Attorney Pool

From time to time you may have a client who wants you to only use pre-approved attorneys for hearing coverage. Pools are a feature that allows you to create a list of pre-approved attorneys that you can choose when you post hearings for the clients who require this. This is different and not to be confused with preferred attorneys which are handled with a filter. See the Favorite Attorney page for information on how to create a favorite attorney list.

For additional reference, here is the link to our Trust Center: trust.docketly.com

You may visit this link and share it with your clients. There are times when clients see the extent of the compliance requirements you can put in place for them, it changes their mind about needing a list of pre-approved attorneys.

Some important points to remember about pools:

1) Only use pools when pre-approved attorneys are needed.
2) Establish a time frame for communications if none of the pre-approved attorneys can cover.
3) Pool size - needs to include all possible attorneys in the network for the area of need.

Pools By Creditor

For customers that do not post manually, they will need to update their EDI to indicate the pool they want to use. But that can be difficult. So, we allow you to specify a specific creditor for a pool. This way, when any hearings for that creditor get posted (regardless of method), we will add the pool to the hearing automatically.

Pool Approval Widget

We have created a special widget to make it easier for your firm to manage pool approvals. The widget is under the "coverage" tab.

You will see three options: Accept, Reject, and Ignore. When you "Accept" an attorney into the pool, they will get an email letting them know and will be able to cover pool hearings. "Rejecting" an attorney will block them from covering pool hearings. "Ignoring" an attorney will place them into a "hold" state for 30 days. These attorneys will still be visible in the Pool Request widget but will appear at the bottom of the list. Once the 30 days are complete, they will appear in the widget in the order in which the request was initially submitted.

Hidden vs Non-Hidden Pools

Pools have a Hidden property on them to help with the visibility of the pool.

If a pool is hidden, notifications will only go out to those in the pool. This is mainly used when a very specific set of attorneys is going to be used and you do not want to invite others to the pool.

Important to note: When you add a pool to a hearing or hearings you post, ONLY those attorneys who are in that pool you created will be notified, even if the number of attorneys in the pool is only one attorney. No other attorneys in our network will be notified. For this reason, it is extremely important that you get pre-approval for every attorney in our network in the area where your client needs coverage. We can help you with a list of those already in our network. If you have attorneys you want to use who are not yet in our network, we can take care of that as well, if you provide us with their names & numbers if you have them. We attempt to contact them and ask them to join the network. We can obviously not guarantee they will join, but we will do our best to get them signed up so you can add them to your pool.

If a pool is not hidden, notifications will go out to the normal list of attorneys, including those who are in or not in the pool. This is the default case. Attorneys who are not in the pool will get a message blocking them from covering until you pre-approve them. Think of it as us soliciting to see if there is interest. Then when interest is shown, we will email you to see if you want them to join or not. If they are approved, they may cover hearings in the pool going forward instantly.

Pool Setup

The pools can only be created by client users. To do so, go to your page, click on the More button in the left-hand menu, and choose the Pools link.

Once on the Pools page, name your new pool and click "Add".

Click "Yes" on the requirements you want to apply to your pool. The compliance requirements added to your pool are in addition to the compliance you have set up on the firm's account. Do not rush through this process - once you choose "Yes", you cannot change it back to "No".

If you need to add a new requirement to the existing pool, please reach out to us to discuss how to handle the attorneys who are currently in the pool but may not meet the new requirements.

Adding/Removing Attorneys

When an attorney who is not in the pool tries to cover a pool hearing and they meet all the requirements, the system generates an email that is sent to the designated person on your team for approval. They can approve the attorney directly from the email. You can also utilize the widget, mentioned above.

If you wish to add an attorney you know but don't have any hearings in their area, you can add them manually. Go to your Pools page, click on the pool you want to add the attorney to, type in their name, select the attorney, and "save" and ta-dah.

If you want to remove an attorney from the pool. Click on the pool you want to remove them from. Find their name and click "Delete."